“I could not risk allowing them into my house, for fear they would pillage and burn it to the ground.”
“And the tsigani? Do you actually think you’re going to change their ways?”
“It’s worth the effort. Tinos offers a unique opportunity at succeeding with tsigani for they revere the holy icon and are accustomed to behaving when on our island.
“But Tinos is only our beginning. This island can handle a population five times its size, and Greece offers many more places where we can do our work. All Greeks know that past governments have banished those they labeled ‘undesirables’ to the islands. We only seek to modify that practice by offering the unwanted incentives for finding a better way of life. We wish to make them part of the solution and not treat them as the problem.”
“Is that why you excluded Albanians? You were afraid they wouldn’t stay with the program.”
“You could put it that way, but I realized in denying them what others were offered so freely would most certainly attract their attention. In time, one or another of them would likely attempt to do us harm.”
“And just what do you plan on doing when that time comes?”
“It’s already been done. We’ve built an army of metanastes who have found a better, honest life. They will not allow the exploiters to take it away from them.”
“That might work. The Albanians wouldn’t want to go to war with the rest of Eastern Europe, unless there’s a mighty big profit in it. But what’s going to prevent someone from some day putting a bullet in your head, or a hit and run driver taking you out on one of your daily jaunts.”
“I do not fear death. But nor do I wish to hasten it. That is why I keep my role in all of this secret. And why I am telling you all of this.”
“Not sure I get that last part.”
“You would not stop until you found me. I could see that. And in so doing would undoubtedly reveal my identity to the world. I judged it better that I confide in you my secret, show to you that I am not the ‘master-criminal’ you seek, but only one who seeks to better the lives of the unloved and anonymous. This could change the world.”
“Great, but now that I know, what’s to keep me from telling the world who you are?”
“Nothing, but what have I done to justify your betraying my confidence? Not turn over my sister to you? How could I do that? The stress you would bring into her life would surely cause her to try and take it again. Besides, it’s hardly worth the trade to you. Exposing me to the wrath of the Albanians will only return all those we are helping back to a life of crime.”
Trelos smiled. “Lastly, who’s going to believe you when you say, ‘Trelos the madman is behind it all’?”
Andreas pulled a silver-color digital recorder out of his pocket. “Surprise.”
Trelos shrugged. “It’s been scrambled since you came into the house. Like I said, ‘I do not wish to hasten’ my demise.”
Andreas checked the recorder and put it back into his pocket. “You do realize this is not going to end here.”
“I should hope not. The killers of those poor people must be found.”
“There’s more involved.”
“Are you talking about the Foundation and the ‘robbery of a church’ that’s supposed to happen here this week?” He accented his words with finger quotes.
“How do you know about that?”
“As I said, we are invisible. Many people talk. We listen. But don’t worry, I can assure you that will not happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Trelos picked up his iPod and earphones. “Because it’s already happened.” He put on his earphones. “I have no more to say.” And began to dance as Kouros and Tassos came through the front door.
“We didn’t find a thing, Chief.”
Trelos did a quick pirouette, ending with a wink that only Andreas could see.
Chapter Twenty-three
“That’s one smart son-of-a-bitch. He made sure to put you in a ‘your word against his’ situation over a supposed conversation between you and a notorious whackjob who never talks,” said Tassos.
“And how the hell do you scramble a recorder?” said Kouros from the backseat of the cruiser heading toward town.
“You’re asking me?” said Andreas. “I’m still trying to remember what he said.”
“You remembered enough for me to have a chat with my niece. Unless one of us talked where we shouldn’t have, Eleni’s the only other person who knew about the robbery.”
“And what was all that about the robbery having ‘already happened’?” said Kouros.
“Another question for Eleni,” said Andreas.
Kouros shook his head. “What I don’t get is why does everybody in the sister’s family think she needs protection? She’s the one going face-to-face every night in that bar with the hard-ass customers her brother is trying to save. And from the way she got away from us last night, she just might have the biggest balls in her family.”
“I think Trelos has a pretty good size pair,” said Andreas. “Let’s not forget he’s been playing chicken with the Albanians.”
“I’d say leaving dead bodies all over Greece qualifies as more than a game of chicken,” said Kouros.
“But who’s doing it, and why?” said Andreas.
“Isn’t Trelos the obvious ‘who’?” said Tassos. “I can’t see him personally doing that sort of heavy-lifting dirty work, but for sure there’s a hell of a lot of guys in his brotherhood who could. Like he said, that’s why the Albanians don’t want to mess with his ‘army.’”
“Great, so what’s the ‘why’ answer?” said Andreas.
“He’s sending a simple message. ‘This is what happens to anyone who tries to fuck with me,’” said Kouros.
Andreas gestured no. “No, not ‘fuck with me.’ That can’t be the message. As far as we can tell the only threat the victims posed to Trelos was to expose him as the Shepherd.”
“Sounds like a difference without a distinction to me,” said Tassos. “Once he’s exposed, the Albanians would do the fucking.”
Andreas nodded. “Which is precisely why it makes no sense that, if he’s responsible for eliminating those he thought posed a threat to exposing him, he simply out of the blue decided to announce to me who he was.”
“Like he said, he thought you’d find out sooner or later, so he’s trying to con you with misdirection,” said Kouros.
“Bullshit. If he was behind the intricate planning that went into arranging the murders of those five men, plus getting that package to me, and his reason for doing all that was to keep his identity a secret, I can’t imagine that less than an hour of my busting his balls would break him. He knew that even if I suspected who he was there was no way I could prove it. All he had to do was keep playing dumb and wait for the chance to take me out.
“No, we’re definitely still missing the ‘why.’”
“Aren’t you forgetting the ‘robbery’? He could have said what he did to distract you from discovering what he’s planned?” said Kouros.
“Only if the robbery hasn’t already happened. For if it has, even the murders make no sense.”
“Which is precisely why we’re seeing my niece.”
Andreas pulled into the lot behind the Foundation’s offices. “Who gets to play bad cop this time?”
“She’s my niece, my turn.”
“What do you mean you have good news and bad news to tell me, uncle?”
“The good news is, we understand from a reliable source that your church won’t be robbed. At least not this week.”
“That is good news, but I never really thought anything like that was possible.”
“The bad news is, you’ve already been robbed.”
“ What? That cannot be. Who told you that?”
“No, the question is, ‘Whom did you talk to about a possible robbery?’”
“No one.”
“You’re the only one on the island other than the three of us who knew.”
“Honest, I didn’t tell anyone at the Foundation. I kept my word.”
Andreas raised his hand. “Excuse me, but possibly you mentioned something in passing about it to a girlfriend, a boyfriend or-”